In certain conventional applications, computer systems sometimes include one or more processors and corresponding software applications that support access to corresponding externally attached storage. For example, according to certain conventional applications, multiple computers may couple to and communicate with a common shared storage system that stores large volumes of data. Depending on access configuration information associated with the shared storage system, two or more computers may be afforded access to a common volume of the shared storage system.
As briefly discussed, a volume is a storage resource associated with a shared storage system in which one or multiple computer users store data for corresponding applications. Shared storage systems typically include many volumes. Each volume appears as a single logical storage entity to respective users even though the volume typically comprises logical storage partitions from multiple disks in the shared storage. For example, a given volume in the shared storage may be defined to include different portions (e.g., partitions) of physical storage on one or multiple disks in the shared storage. Partitions of the physical storage associated with a volume need not be contiguous with each other. Thus, the physical storage of the volume can be randomly located on each of multiple different disks in the shared storage system. Mapping techniques (which are transparent to the user) enable users to access the appropriate data from disks of the shared storage when they retrieve a corresponding file stored in the file system mounted on the volume.
Most shared storage applications include a conventional software application enabling administrators to manage which users in a computer system are able to access different volumes in the shared storage.